Sticky Shed

[wiztom]

Hello,

I have been reading discussions about this phenomenon but I am not clear as to what "sticky Shed" is.
I normally by TDK or Maxell tape. I recently bought a lot of 10.5 Reels of tape. Among them was a coveted collection of Drake Chenault tapes on Ampex reels.
What I am experiencing is a cream colored residue that stays mainly on the tape guides. The tapes play fine. Is this sticky shed?

Thanks

 

[darg]

While I don't know how sticky shed looks like I would be interested to see what you have and maybe somebody else can post a picture how bad it might be in worst case since none of the threads have pictures of sticky shed and sticky tape.

 

[Tinman]

That is part of sticky shed. That cream colored residue is the oxide coming off the tape. This only gets worse, and playing it will destroy the tape and gum up the machine.

There are numerous discussions on this problem, in particular with Ampex. Type in sticky shed in google and start reading. There are also some active discussions on Tapeheads.net right now, as we are experimenting with other possible treatments for this. Right now I am running a ruined Ampex 406 that was vacuum treated and then baked.

For now, it runs flawless, but it's too early to tell if this fix will last.

 

[BOUXY]

Sticky Shed comes in many disguises!Cream colored residue is one and another is actual pieces of the Tape flaking off as the Tape is played,easily spotted as well as the actual Tape sticking to everything in the Tape Path ,Rollers,Capstan and Guides

 

[kermit z]

You will see pretty fast when it starts stacking up on the heads.

 

[kfalls]

We've seen too many examples of Sticky Shed archiving tapes. I was called to look at a Studer A807 which wasn't playing, only to find out the tape was stuck to the heads. We routinely bake our older tapes, especially the Ampex. We have a nine shelf custom oven which is programmed to bring the tapes up to temp slowly, bake for a few hours, then slowly cool. I believe it's an eight hour process. Baking tapes works very well for us. We archive approx 4000 tapes/week.

 

[eddisc]

We've seen too many examples of Sticky Shed archiving tapes. I was called to look at a Studer A807 which wasn't playing, only to find out the tape was stuck to the heads. We routinely bake our older tapes, especially the Ampex. We have a nine shelf custom oven which is programmed to bring the tapes up to temp slowly, bake for a few hours, then slowly cool. I believe it's an eight hour process. Baking tapes works very well for us. We archive approx 4000 tapes/week.

ARE YOU HIRING ???

 

[kfalls]

We're at a university and hiring mostly students, except for management and maintenance.